Hollywood witnesses its first massive hacking scandal

Hollywood was hit by a massive hack over the weekend where pictures of actors, other assorted celebrities and models and sport stars were allegedly stolen and then posted online for the world to gawk at. While nude photo or video leaks are nothing new, this is the first time it has happened on this scale.

The hacker, who took to an image-board, boasted about having access to several videos and pictures, blatantly posting pictures of his desktop to prove his/her point, along with folder after folder of actors’ pictures and videos. Needless to say, the Internet went crazy with searches for these pictures.

What happened

Most of these celebs had their iCloud service hacked. The service allows Apple users to post their content online on the cloud, so as to be able to access them on desktops as well as their iPads and iPhones as well and do so, safely and securely. One expects Apple’s image (regarding internet security) to take a hit, following this incident, following their silence on the matter at the time of going to print.

Who got hit

Jennifer Lawrence, whose non-controversial image had made her an American sweetheart, an image that remained untarnished until now got hit. Her spokesperson, in an official statement confirmed the authenticity of the pictures of her client, calling the leak a “flagrant violation of privacy” and added that the “authorities have been contacted”.

Another actress who confirmed that it was indeed her in the pictures, was Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who starred in Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter). She tweeted that her pics were taken with her husband “years ago in the privacy of our home. Knowing that those photos were deleted long ago, I can only imagine the creepy effort that went into this”.

Victoria took to Twitter to say that the pics being claimed as hers are fake. Ariana Grande’s spokesperson told a website that her pics were face as well. In days to come, the authenticity of the hacker’s claims will be tested and more celebs will reveal the extent their privacy has been invaded.

Twitter, for a change, had mostly supportive and empathic tweets, reaching out to affected celebs. Jennifer Lawrence, in particular got the most love with random people supposedly posting pictures of themselves in various degrees of nudity with the hashtag #leakforJLaw, showing solidarity with the actress. It has been trending since.

Also, users who discovered J-Law’s nude pics and posted them to their Twitter accounts have either had their accounts suspended or deleted.